Lord Jamieson (Con)

My Lords, I will speak briefly to Amendment 135I, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. I am not sure that I will be as brief as he was, but I will try to keep my words to a minimum. I can see the logic for the proposal that national parks should be included; they are, by their very nature, areas of national significance and local sensitivity. However, the amendment raises some important questions for the Government. First, how do Ministers envisage striking a balance between national park authorities and their statutory duty to conserve and enhance natural beauty, and the often very different pressures felt by surrounding local authorities to accommodate growth and development? Secondly, where a joint committee is established, how will accountability operate? Amendment 136ZA, in my name, seeks to ensure that the composition of a strategic planning board, and of any committees established under it, properly reflects the constituent authorities and the populations they serve, to guarantee fair representation. The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, raised that point. The principle is important, because without it there is a real risk that the voices of smaller authorities or communities could be diluted in favour of those of larger ones. Strategic planning is about bringing areas together to shape the future collectively and to think about housing, infrastructure, transport and economic development at a scale that makes sense, but such co-operation will succeed only if all partners feel that the governance arrangements are balanced and legitimate. Ensuring fair representation is therefore not simply a matter of equity in its narrowest sense; it is about the very foundations of good governance. Finally, I thank my noble friend Lord Lansley for bringing forward Amendment 136. It is only right that a spatial development strategy should also look at employment sites as well as housing because, without these, how can one truly consider the real demand for housing? I apologise: I have jumped a page and gone a bit too far. I will leave it there and just say that we need fair representation.